How hiring a virtual assistant can generate B2B leads?

How to generate B2B leads for your small business by hiring a virtual assistant

How to generate B2B leads for your small business

A small business needs to focus on various tasks and operations that are necessary to keep them running. Things can get hectic in the initial stages of running a business as there are not enough funds to hire more employees. The business owner can be burdened by all that needs to be done and may find it hard to find the time to search for new leads and clients. And even if they do manage to receive responses, you can be stuck in limbo for a long while waiting for the deals to close so that new leads could be pursued. 

New leads are crucial to help a business grow. While it is important to maintain connections with existing customers, the business cannot expand if there is no additional income. It can be time-consuming and cost you if you don’t close any deals when you could have been focusing on other important tasks. And because of this workload, you could even cause yourself to burn out. 

Now, you may be thinking of hiring an employee to help you out with various tasks, but that is a huge expense. You could hire a virtual assistant, on the other hand, to help you with specific tasks for a few hours. One way in which they could help is by helping you generate new leads for your business. Instead of assigning short times in the day to deal with possible clients, you can hire virtual assistants to focus on finding new leads for the business. A virtual assistant can dedicate all their time to communicating with new clients and allow the owner to deal with other aspects of running their business. 

Hiring a virtual assistant who is professional and efficient is important as you need the first impression with your client to be a positive one. So, the virtual assistant should be able to communicate effectively and represent your brand in a positive light. It will also increase the chances of getting a positive reply from prospective clients. 

Hiring a virtual secretary for a small business helps you achieve all that. Let your Virtual assistants work on finding new leads, while you focus on the rest of the business. Set some guidelines and provide the virtual assistant with the necessary information and let them spread the word about your business around town. 

What Can A Virtual Assistant Do?

Virtual assistants can help your businesses by performing a myriad of day-to-day administrative, clerical, marketing, and financial tasks. While this article will focus on their role in generating leads, they use a lot of skills to be able to do that. 

Virtual Assistants are hired for various business activities that are routinely necessary for a business. Once you know you need help, you can search where to hire a virtual assistant from at a moment’s notice to help you with any task. You can hire them as many times as you need the task completed and set your time aside for something else. You only have to pay them for the work they do and avoid having to pay for medical insurance and other benefits that you would have to pay an employee. 

Some of the services that a Virtual assistant for small businesses can offer are listed below:

  • Data entry in a spreadsheet
  • Customer support
  • Bookkeeping services
  • Inbox management
  • Overdue follow up
  • Order processing
  • Creating CRM records
  • Translation
  • Transcription
  • Scheduling blog posts, videos & social media posts
  • Responding to Customer Queries
  • Calendar management

How to Set Goals?

1. Identify daily/weekly goals

When you know how to hire a virtual assistant, you need to assign the goals accordingly. You can assign the goals for a week, and receive updates from them at the end of every day or once the task is completed. 

You can set a number for the virtual assistants that they know what is expected of them within the time that they work for you. If you need the virtual assistant to reach out to 50 clients a day, you need to communicate with them in advance and discuss whether it is doable for them. Shadow them for the first few hours or days to help them with their research or split the work with them to help them get a hang of things. 

2. Delegate tasks

Hiring a virtual assistant can help you generate new leads in multiple ways depending on your marketing strategies and business model. Virtual assistants are trained to perform various tasks already and have experience in those fields. Despite their training, they need to get accustomed to the business operations and understand the company’s approach. As with any employee, you should start slow with them and eventually bring them up to the usual pace. 

Ways to Generate Leads with the help of VAs?

1.Researching your prospects

Research is an important part of finding new leads so that you can understand their needs and requirements. The more you learn about the client, the easier it is to frame a message to help you warrant a response. You can do the necessary research through their website, their social media profile, or by calling them up. If you don’t do any research, you may create a bad impression with the client as your efforts will appear lazy and inefficient. 

The importance of research is understood by those who generate B2B leads. By hiring a virtual assistant you can assign a few clients to them and ask them to research before they reach out to the client. They can find the best person to reach in the company, and also find out what your client is looking for. 

2.Telemarketing

Telemarketing is still an important part of generating leads, despite how popular online modes of communication have gotten. From the initial calls to set up appointments to following up with the client, good telemarketing skills are very necessary to build relationships. Many individuals don’t feel confident speaking on the phone, so the virtual secretary for small businesses can answer all your calls.

Most Virtual assistants are equipped to handle calls and have good communication skills, which make them perfect for this task. Ensure that your virtual assistant can talk to customers and is also able to schedule appointments, and prioritize the important leads so that you can focus on those. 

3. Email campaigns

Emails continue to be a very popular way to communicate with other clients and customers. The virtual assistant you hire should have clear communication skills that are used to create well-written and concise emails. 

A good email should be able to express your brand’s style and still seem professional and friendly. It shouldn’t be filled with a lot of information, yet shouldn’t be too short. The virtual secretary for small businesses should be efficient when it comes to follow-ups and replies as it gives the clients a good impression. Too many delays don’t reflect well on your brand’s image. Even the layout of the email matters, ensure that all the information is listed clearly and in a simple font. 

4. Database management

A good quality database is crucial to generating leads for the business. Some small businesses may have a starting point, many may be required to create one from scratch. A virtual assistant for small businesses can help in creating a quality database that is updated, compliant, and relevant to your brand image. The importance of a database cannot be denied, and working with an experienced VA can help you keep a database up to date to help generate leads. 

5. Following up

Following up with the client after a meeting, a conversation, or even after an email reply is necessary. If you have collected contact details from a trade show or met the client at another meeting, or product launch, you can always email them to remind them of your business and product. You can contact them by email, by phone, and even through social media. Send them the details of your company and they may just sign up to your mailing list. By hiring a virtual assistant this task can be performed effectively without you having to worry about your client. 

6. Social Networking Sites

Some of the most popular apps through which you can generate leads are Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to name a few. You can use these apps to create content and post it on your profile page. Before you choose the social media app to market your brand, you need to understand which platform is the right one for your business. If your brand is flashy and is aimed at a younger population, Instagram and TikTok may be the right place for you. If you provide services to other firms, LinkedIn would be the app for you. By identifying where your target audience can be found, you are one step closer to the right crowd and connections and learn how to hire a virtual assistant to help you with the work.

Conclusion

A virtual assistant can make things a lot simpler for small business owners. Instead of wrapping up these conversations in a short time, you can hire a virtual assistant to communicate with the clients and respond to emails. They can take the pressure off you and conduct the necessary research to generate leads for your company. 

A trained virtual assistant can help businesses with a variety of tasks and can save you a lot of time and money.

Author

Vgrow